In its more general aspect the present invention relates to a system and method for improving the detection efficiency of an identification system including a transponder and a reader.
More specifically, the invention relates to a radio frequency (RF) identification system comprising an interrogator reader device having an interrogator coil antenna and a transponder having a transponder coil antenna and a microchip.
As is well know in this specific technical field, transponders are electronic circuits or microchips associated to a coil antenna and including a memory portion containing information for the identification of any type of object, for instance for identification of animals or for attaching dedicated information to any type of item in logistics processes, etc.
Transponders are normally used in combination with a reader device, which exchange signals with the transponder and recovers the information stored inside allowing such information to be available to a user.
In some occasions the reader device is used for sending also information to the transponder, so that new data or updated information may also be stored in the transponder memory portion.
It's worthwhile noting that transponders have little energy at their disposal for internal handling of the stored information, for instance for the reading and writing operations and for transmitting the required information to the interrogating reader device.
In this respect we may consider that there are substantially two kind of transponders: the so-called active transponders, including an internal energy source, such as a small battery, and the so-called passive transponders that have no internal energy source but make use the energy of the electromagnetic field provided by the interrogating reader device.
The present invention is focused on passive transponders; however, the principle of the invention may also be applied to active transponders.